I Like Thursday: Contras, Quilts and Cheese

For this week's I Like Thursday I'm going to kick off with the latest addition to the neighborhood.  This guy appeared in my neighbor's yard yesterday - he must be five feet tall.  Quite striking!

NEFFA!  The New England Folk Festival.  I've written about this in the past: a weekend filled with music and dancing.  This year, alas, I only got there on Sunday.  It was a challenge finding a balance between catching up with people I hadn't seen in years and dancing as much as possible.  One day was not nearly enough (although my pedometer claimed I did 12 miles of dancing).  Next year I'll attend more of it.

Since I didn't attend NEFFA on Saturday, I attended the Hands All Around quilt show in Amherst with my sister.  So many amazing quilts.  I'm only showing a few photos of the beautiful items.

Toni's Quilt was a child's drawings that were rendered in embroidery, then added in shadow box blocks.  It was such a whimsical quilt.  Jay Feather really looked like it was in a glass jar - the quilt strips in the background even bend like it was refracted through glass. Winter Blues with a Twist in Orange had so many little pieces, and I loved the shades of orange with the black and white.  I liked the cheerful colors in Clementine Collage Wall Hanging.  It was interesting how it was appliqued.

Any Harry Potter fans?  Harry and Ginny's Bookcase was crammed with Hogwarts memorabilia.  The patterns came from Fandom in Stitches.  My sister and I poured over the quilt trying to identify everything.  Very cool!

Then there was Pineapple Crazy.  It's a Bonnie Hunter pattern.  And talk about crazy - this has 11,980 pieces.  Oof!  Maybe I need to do a scrappy quilt like this for my next "crumb" quilt.

This last photo is actually the first quilt I saw.  This is only the center of the quilt and I didn't catch its name.  The applique was stunning.  So many layers, and so many details embroidered in.  The colors!  I wanted to dive right in.  The outer border, which you can barely see on the bottom, had more leaves and butterflies quilted in.  So much detail!  If I had to pick a favorite, this one was it. 

I'm so glad we had the chance to attend.

This week's prompt asks us if we speak more than one language?  Oh, I wish.  I took French in high school, but it didn't stick.  I recall more from the American Sign Language class I took eight years ago.  I'm excited - there's going to be a contra dance next month being taught in ASL.  I'll see how much I can understand.

Bleu!  He and Provolone are still hanging out with us.  Bleu likes his morning scritches.  He's a big rumbler.

I'm wrapping up this week with this silly Perfect tea maker.  Enjoy!

p.s. I discovered yesterday that I haven't been notified when people comment.   I'm catching up on my comments - sorry I haven't replied.  I still appreciate what you've written!